Heart Portal

Friends, Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we explore 3 amplifiers or requirements for your expansion - all rooted in the idea of being fully present. Your journey of expansion will require you to introduce and explore 3 things, each an amplifier for your journey:

1. Surrender as am Amplifier -- we talked about letting go of reaching for what was or what will be as an amplifier for your expansion. I offered you questions to explore when it comes to surrender.

2. Pleasure as an Amplifier -- yup good old fashion, feel good, joy. What makes you feel good, what gets your heart beating, where do you lose yourself or get inspired by. Kids really were on to something when they would get lost in the pleasures of day to day life.

3. Gratitude as an Amplifier -- gratitude truly is a fast track t the present moment and makes you incredibly magnetic to more to be grateful for!

Take a listen.

Friends, how are you as we turn the corner into September? 

As the month changes over inside The Heart portal digital studio we change our focus from the energetic theme of Your Edges to Expansion SZN. If you are like wtf are you talking about, each month inside the digital studio we explore an energetic theme, we stay with the theme for the duration of the month so we can deepen into it each week rather than hopping from topic to topic. I’ve decided to play with taking a similar approach to the podcast and see how it feels. 

September brings with it a new and amplified energy of excitement and activation. Like it’s time to assess how far we’ve come, recalibrate to where we are going and to start making moves in a big way. It’s like the party energy of August is over and now it’s time to get down to business. I almost look at September as an energetic new year. So, let’s explore expansion season and how we can harness the energy to supercharge our desires.

When you think about the word expansion, what do you think about? 

And, when it comes to expanding into your life what does that bring up? 

Let’s take a step back so we can take one forward. Last month we explored our edges, those sticky moments, actions and reactions that meet us on the edge of what we know, the borders of our comfort zone. The ‘resistance’ we face before we step into something, or make moves in our lives. In the last episode, I invited you to explore what sat beyond your edges, who you were without them, as you moved through them and beyond them. Truthfully, what’s on the other side of your edge is growth – a new path, a new way, a new level, a new perspective, a new life – an expanded version of who you once were and often a version of you that, until the moment you  moved beyond your edge, you never knew could exist.

• What are you being called to expand into in this next season of your life? 
• Where are you looking to experience the most growth? 
• Where are you looking to deepen your experience of fully expressing yourself? 
• Where are you looking to push the edges of possibility for yourself over the next 4 months?

As we close out the month of August and we close out one energetic theme and begin the switch to the next, this episode is going to be a short and crispy one. September inside The Heart Portal digital Studio marks the start of EXPANSION SZN. So as we close out the month where we explored our edges, today’s episode focuses on Beyond your edges. 

Theoretically, sometimes we spend so much time spiraling around, bumping up against and backing away from, repeating  the story of our edge that we lose sight of or our bearings with what’s beyond it – the vision of who you are beyond that edge. 

So my invitation to you in this episode is to explore that. Who you are beyond your edges. And I’m going to offer you some food for thought and some exercises on how to do that. 

Remember this.. Sometimes we spend so much time in the struggle or the resistance or the chaos that we lose sight of what we want, our desire, the vision, what we are moving for in the first place. The edge provides comfort, because it keeps us safely in the confines of where were are – the known. But you know that’s not where you are heading, that what you desire isn’t in te know because you wouldn’t long for it if it was. 

So let’s play with exploring who you are beyond your edges.

How is your heart today? 

If you’ve been on this journey with me over the last few weeks, we’ve talked about meeting edges. Those sticky points we bump up against over and over until we are able to shift something to move through them. Edges are laced in fear, deep rooted beliefs that we’ve likely outgrown, old perspectives and all the usual suspects that keep us stuck or spiralling. 

ICYMI last week, I introduced the topic of your edge. The edges inevitably meet on our journey of becoming. 

What I mean by journey of becoming is this: I believe, we are here, it is our purpose to live fully expressed. To be so fully who we are and honor your you-ness that we couldn’t fathom living any other way.to be this fully expressed, embodied version of self, we will be asked to peel back the layers of who we’ve been taught, conditioned or shamed into being. 

It’s to move from misaligned to aligned. 

Good news/bad news – I’m not entirely sure if we ever truly arrive at our most fully-expressed self. That the journey is just that - a journey. One we deepen into and One where we constantly lose our way and find our way back over and over again. 

On this journey we (every single one of us without exception) inevitably meet edges – they are sharp, prickly and usually indicate we’ve outgrown or become misaligned with something. 

As human beings, our nature is to grow, to be in motion. Edges guide us and highlight what needs to be looked at for us to proceed. It shows us what we're outgrowing and offers an invitation to move back into alignment. 

But, for some, edges seem like dead ends. At the edges you are being given a choice – to sit on the edge your whole life, or to allow yourself to go to the depths to move forward into the unknown?  Your future self, this version of you you desire to be is waving you into the pool but your dick brain wants you to stay where you are. So what do you do? 

Do you succumb to the resistance and stay where you are – being thrashed by life or do you step courageously back into alignment?

Last week, my invitation to you was to start getting curious about when and where edges arise. You can’t change what you don’t know. I.E. Awareness is the first step to making intentional shifts. 

I invited you to get acquainted with where the edges in your life are, how they present, what they feel and look like so that you know the resistance or struggle you are feeling is in fact an edge. Now what. What do you do when you are faced with the stickiness of life, an edge that feels so sharp an uncomfortable, when you feel hopelessly stuck - WTF do you do? 

That is what we explore in today's episode. And I give you some homework (heart work I call it) for the next time you meet an edge.

Welcome back to the podcast, as you saw last month we explored the energetic theme of Leaning into Self-Trust. Well, as we enter August the energy shifts as does the energetic theme. Before we talk about what we are moving towards and exploring can we talk about August (these two topics tie together I promise!) 

I am Leo and it is my birthday month. If it isn’t obvious, I think it’s the best month in the entire calendar year. While most people my age start to get funny about birthdays and numbers - not this girl. In my opinion it’s a gift to even see another birthday so why not celebrate! I love my birthday, I’ve always loved my birthday. 

Hey friends, welcome back to the podcast!

You may be sensing the theme of the last few episodes have centred around building and strengthening our ability to trust ourselves.

Inside The Heart Portal digital studio each month follows an energetic theme and Self-Trust has been the theme for the last 4 weeks. The idea is each week we are deep into the energy of self-trust. With the intention of opening ourselves up to a deeper sense of or relationship to trusting ourselves. 

Welcome back to this week's episode of The Heart Portal podcast! We begin today's practice with a sliver of a meditation (please skip the first 2 minutes if you are driving, for the love of god!). And we do so for 2 reasons:

1. It introduces you to the topic of today’s episode which is moving from head to heart living. 

Friends. It has been a hot minute. 

Truthfully - it’s been a year..in more ways than one. It’s been a year since I recorded my last episode and it’s been a year of complete transition for me personally.

In this episode I give you an update on where I've been and what I've been through over the last year. I share with you why I chose to break up with SOULBODY and transition my business to The Heart Portal and I chat with you about WHY it's called The Heart Portal.

Then, we get to the good stuff.

As some of you know I operate a digital studio called The Heart Portal Studio (creative, right?!). It’s truly a transformative space rooted in breathwork. It’s where participants (and myself because I walk alongside them) come to explore self – discover, awareness, connection, healing, expansion and transformation. It’s truly something. 

Anyhow, each month we move through an ‘ENERGETIC THEME’ and this month’s theme is all about leaning into and building the relationship to SELF TRUST. 

It doesn’t go unnoticed that I’ve been teaching what I need to know most in this space because in this era of my life (my version of an era’s tour) I’m being called to lean into trust more deeply than I ever have. It’s VERY uncomfortable and it’s the only way forward. 

And, like anything we talk about in this space, the journey begins within. 

The way I see it is the relationship we have with ourselves (capital S self) is THE most important relationship of our entire lives yet it is often the one we nourish and tend to the least. Funny that. And if you look deeper at the relationship it’s pretty one way - we rely on it to provide for us in the big, challenging moments of life without giving much to it in the small, everyday moments. 

So if this podcast is anything, let it be an invitation to begin shifting that relationship or, at very least how we see that relationship. 

~~~

WHOA! This is a very special episode of THE HEART PORTAL Podcast. When I launched season 2 of the podcast I knew I would be really selective over the guests I had on. Thanks to the TikTok algorithm, I stumbled across Dana and KNEW I had to have her on the podcast. In last week's episode, I spoke briefly about my experience with burnout and what I think caused it. In this episode Dana and I get into both the science and the spirituality of what happens to our body when we are stressed or burned out and tangible ways to regulate your system. 

Dana tells a familiar story of how the conditioning she received from society and her family and how attaching her inherent value to working hard led her down the path of her own state of burn out.  She, like most of us, tried mindset work, traditional talk therapy and many other modalities to shift how she was feeling. It wasn't until she discovered spiritual psychology and opened herself up to new practices such as breathwork (yay!) and somatics, did she open up to a whole new way of being. 

Dana gives us a crash course in the nervous system. How our bodies (and minds) respond to stress and why, when we are dysregulated we see the entire world through a fear-based lens. She opens us up to what is possible when we move through the world in a state of regulation EVEN WHEN stressful events occur. 

She gives us practical and spiritual practices on what to do when we find ourselves in stressful situations, the role trauma plays on how our system responds to the situation(and how it can differ from someone else experiencing the exact same thing). We talk timeline jumping, epigenetics, manifestation and so much more. 

We close by talking about Somatics and why taking a body-first approach can be so potent in healing trauma, mitigating stress, improving performance and living a life fully as you are. 

This is one of the juiciest episodes I've done to date, you are NOT going to want to miss this!

My loves, welcome back! If you follow me on social media you would have seen me offer you a heart opener. A heart opener is a question doesn't to open you up to coming more fully into your heart, to go deeper into yourself and shifting your perspective so that you can see through the eyes of your heart (and not your overthinking mind). Today's solo episode is around this heart opener: COULD IT BE POSSIBLE THAT BURNOUT IS SIMPLY A SIGN THAT YOU ARE LIVING OUT OF ALIGNMENT? Breathe. that. in. 

Burnout is on the rise and we are currently living through a collective burnout. My invitation to you is to dig deep and see where you may be living out of alignment with your desires, with your core values or with who you are RIGHT IN THIS MOMENT. I share with you my own experience of burning out from my dream job, one that I set out to get 10 years ago. I got it. And, I left it in the height of the 2021 when the world was still riddled with uncertainty. 

For me, I was living out of alignment with what my heart truly desired. It was what I had wanted at one point in my life but I wasn't that person any more. So, if you are feeling burned out where might you be living out of alignment? It doesn't always mean you have to leave where you are or take big leaps but when you KNOW where you are out of alignment, you can start doing things to bring you back INTO alignment. 

I close with a reminder and one of my favourite quotes. Here's the thing.. there are no wrong turns or wrong decisions. Like Peter Crone says: "it couldn't have happened any other way, because it didn't". 

Next week on the podcast we dive deeper into burn out and nervous system regulation with a nervous system expert! You're going to want to stick around for this one. 

In this solo episode of the podcast I jam on moving through fear. I'm not talking the fear that stops us for doing something life harming, I'm talking the fear that rears its ugly head just as we are about to take a bold step in the direction of our expansion, our becoming. The fear that keeps us from speaking up, speaking out, stepping up, stepping out, becoming our fullest expression and living a heart attuned life (hot tip: that's your purpose!). I'm talking the fear that keeps us hiding, keeps us small, keeps us playing safe. So, if you are are on the journey of your becoming (your highest self) and you hit a sticky point, where all the familiar resisting, distracting or self-sabotaging tendencies come up -- this episode is for you!

HERE'S THE HIGHLIGHT REEL OF WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT:

• I talk about why this fear comes up, where it might have originated in the first place and WHY the path to our becoming will often lead us to the cave we fear the most. But, as the Joseph Campbell quote says: The cave we fear to enter holds the treasure we seek. 
• I talk about the misconception that fear has to go away completely for you to take action. We can be fearful AND we can still choose to move forward. Not either or. My invitation to you is that when fear takes over, you see fear for the scared child it is. What would you say to that child. 
• I share with you an activity I shared with THE HEART PORTAL members in our session this past weekend about writing your fear a love letter and letting it go. 
• I talk about love being the antidote to fear and how to seek love by connecting to the beauty that is in this present moment. 
• I also talk about one of the most common questions I see: How to tell the difference between when you are being guided by fear or your intuitive heart, your hearts wisdom. 
• I close with some advice on how to move through fear and where to seek community because we don't have to do this thing called life alone and trust me -- you are NOT alone in what you are experiencing. 

In today's episode we go is inspired by the energetic lesson I taught in THE HEART PORTAL -- the digital breathwork studio which launched earlier this year. One of the core tenets of everything I teach both through Soulbody and through corporate wellness sessions is PRESENCE and, essentially this:  and one of  presence isn't optional, it's a requirement for where we are heading. Only from a place of presence can we open ourselves up to the vastness of possibility. 

I talk about what presence is -- tl;dr it's YOU in your BEING-NESS. It's your experience of experiencing the world. And in presence our experience just IS, it doesn't mean anything. Meaning-making comes when we view the present moment through the lens of the past or the future. 

I talk about the ways in which we avoid presence and why we do so -- often times we are so afraid of what we will meet in presence yet what we meet is exactly what we are seeking. I offer you to questions to help you see the beauty in and to anchor into the present moment. 

We chat about what presence is asking of you and what is on the other side of presence and I think you are going to want to hear this! We do a 30 second activity for presence where I invite you to simply meet what is here. 

Welcome back to this week's episode of THE HEART PORTAL. In this JUICY episode, I'm giving away my #1 piece of advice that I have told every single person I have coached, mentored, befriended and that I offer myself. Are you ready? Not gatekeeping here -- YOUR HEART KNOWS. I know, painstakingly simple. 

In this episode I give you real life examples of what it's like to be in one of those, what I like to call 'heady' moments where you are death gripping a decision, desperate for clarity or answers. The thing is babe, your heart knows. It always does. We talk about why listening to that truth from within can be so challenging: It can mean you have to take action that is uncomfortable, it can mean you don't trust your own truth or you might not WANT to hear that truth (yet). I also talk about the intricacy of deciphering between that truth and the ego trying to keep you small, safe, the same, fearful or in self-sabotage. We'll be doing a whole other episode on that!

I give you two of my FAVOURITE practices (30 seconds and under) for coming back into your heart when you are having a heady moment and how to begin developing that relationship with your heart's truth. Hot tip: it's going to take trusting and it will likely be challenging. But, also know that there are no 'wrong' decisions only decisions. 

So, my hope for you is if you take NOTHING else away from this episode: YOUR HEART KNOWS!

We're back loves! We've changed, we've healed, we've expanded, we're ready to go deep and we are ready to EXPAND! In this episode, I chat about what I've been up to, why I've been hiding from sharing my voice with you all and what you can expect in this NEW-ish space moving forward. We begin by taking an intentional and connecting breath together and boy does it feel good!

I talk a little bit about growing out of the old version of the podcast...what was called The Purpose + Possibility Podcast is now THE HEART PORTAL podcast. I talk about what THE HEART PORTAL is...hello, a gateway to the intuitive wisdom that sits in your heart, the infinite number of ways you can access that wisdom and WHY I use breathwork as the foundation of my own journey. 

I get real with you about the lessons I've learned as I've moved through the complexity of the last 6 months and that the root of my own 'suffering' is often when I'm not listing to or living from MY HEART. 

Today's episode is a short and sweet one with yours truly! I've been feeling called to come to you with these types of episodes that I call HEARTSPEAK where I get on and do just that – let my heart speak. I will share with you snippets of what I'm processing, learning, seeing, sharing or noodling on as I move through life. Today I'm talking to you about the guiding light that I'm setting for myself to move into my 40th year anchored into LIVING.BOLDLY. Two works that when spoken separately have meaning but when brought together are AMPLIFIED. 

Here's a recap from today: 

• How I make birthday's sacred by setting the tone for the year ahead
• Where LIVING.BOLDLY came from and what it means for me as I turn 40
• How to get curious about what living means to you and to tell the difference between what living is and what autopilot is
• What doing it BOLDLY means - no more hiding, no more playing small. 
• Where I've been hiding in my expression with Soulbody
• A recent moment when the universe presented a situation that had me questioning where am and and what living means
• A few pointers on how you can start living boldly

RESOURCES: 

• Business Expander Sessions: https://www.soulbody.co/business-expander-session
• Upcoming Breathwork Offerings: https://www.soulbody.co/breathwork

WHERE TO FIND UP: 

In today's episode, I chat with the incredible Christine Banno. Christine is an Intuitive Business Mentor. Christine helps entrepreneurs activate and align with their unique energetic blueprint and move the shadow so they can build a business that embodies their magic. I am so inspired by Christine's ability to tap fully into her intuition, her willingness to do the deep and often uncomfortable spiritual 'work' and her tenacity to go after what she feels is most aligned for her.

We chat about her journey through the 'chaotic' 20's  to living aligned life with the business of her dreams. She shared the road that got her there was bumpy and full of  rock bottom moments that propelled her into her 11 year journey with spirituality and personal development.

She describes her journey of self discovery as the journey 'home' where she transitioned out of what she calls the 'fog' of living life on other people's terms to one that is fully her own. She talked about 'defrosting' her body and nervous system which she believes became frozen at an early age due to bullying.

Christine talks about going into the depths of both shadow work and inner child reparenting, taking radical responsibility for her life, unhooking from the identity of a victim and stepping into her role as the creator of her life. She believes she had to walk this journey so she could help others do the same.

Here's what we chatted about:

• Her journey through chaos, living in the fog and hitting multiple rock bottoms to opening up to a spiritual awakening and embarking on an 11 year journey of self-discovery to come home to herself.
• What it is to live in the 'fog' of life and how to tap back into our truth
• Letting life's most difficult moments open us up to an awakening
• "Unfreezing" our system so that we can step into our magic
• A deep dive into shadow work and embracing the parts of ourselves we neglect, reject or deem unloveable
• Nurturing the inner child within us so we can tap into our potential
• How to move through the fear of diving deep and 'doing the work'
• Tapping into our intuition (and yes we are all intuitive).
  

RESOURCE

In today's episode I have the HONOUR of chatting with Alex Cantone. Alex is a Projector in human design, she is a daydreamer, a wanderer and a great life experimenter. We waste NO time in jumping right into the juicy bits of today's episode right from the first questions. I invited Alex on the podcast because I am so inspired by her willingness to share her journey as she experiments her way through life. Her sense of trust in herself and the universe has given me permission to lean more into who I am and to shift my perspective of failure to one of experimentation, giving myself permission to pivot and surrender.

Alex talk about how she is easing into the flow and celebration of life and her journey to free herself from a life she was living for someone else and on someone else's terms. She talks of how she felt like in the pursuit of her business she lost the magic for who she was and what life is but has been able to regain that over the last few months by living more fully in the moment.

We talk about how to build trust in your intuition to make big moves in your life that may, on the surface seem not to make sense.

Alex spoke about how she reached a point in her business journey that, while successful by society's measure, was out of alignment in its approach to business, marketing and sales. She also gave us a real and raw view into where she is with that today.

I ask Alex her distinction between making decisions out of fear vs intuition, which is one of the most common questions I get in my coaching business. We scratch the surface on what Human Design is and Alex gives her take on it as a reconditioning and reparenting tool, which was a whole new way for me to think about it.

A RECAP OF WHAT WE CHATTED ABOUT

• Her realization she was living for someone else and her journey in freeing herself from that.
• What it means to look at life like an experiment
• How to build trust in yourself and your intuition
• How to distinguish if you are making a decision from fear vs intuition
• What happens when your thriving business is no longer in alignment with who you are
• Being willing to pivot away from something that doesn't feel right
• A high level look at Human Design
• Human Design as a reparenting + reconditioning tool
• Approaching business as an experiment and from a place of nonattachment
  

RESOURCE

In today's episode I spoke about the idea of becoming a curious explorer of your own life. This was a phrase I had first heard when I began my journey with meditation and mindfulness teacher training. We were invited to get curious and explore our emotions (good and bad) and what was going on under the surface as we moved through our days - moment by moment. I have since taken the idea of being a curious explorer and woven into my own journey with personal and spiritual exploration. It's allowed me to create space, breathing room, as I call it, so I can go see what life is presenting, and my reaction from a more objective place.

I chatted about a few key learnings or moments on my journey into curiosity. One of the biggest moments was the flip in perspective from life happening TO me to life happening FOR me. I have been able to see where I can begin to take ownership over my life and where playing a victim wasn't serving me in being about to move past challenging events and to live a life truly worth living.

Getting curious has given me the ability to see what feels good to me and what doesn't , what is in alignment and what isn't and where I am out of integrity with my own beliefs and values.

I talk about how life, or the universe will show you exactly where to begin. It speaks in whispers, then yells and then will send a cosmic 2 x 4 until you listen, tune in and consciously choose to redirect.

I offer you some of the most poignant and powerful questions to ask yourself around who you are, why you are the way you are, what you believe, why you want the things you want and what's possible for you. And of course, I give tangible takeaways on where to begin!

A recap of what I cover:

• What it means to be a curious explorer of your life
• How it relates to mindfulness
• How it also invites you to take radical accountability and responsibility for your life
• What it means to 'do the work'
• Key moments and learnings on my journey through curiosity
• The patterns that life shows you and where to begin getting curious
• Questions the beliefs you have and why you want what you want
• Where to begin in the journey of exploring yourself
• How to start living a life truly worth living
  

Resources

In today's episode I chat with the BRAZEN and BEAUTIFUL Giulia Halkier. I met Giulia a few years ago when I completed her Level 1 and Level 2 Reiki healer training.  I have since followed  and been inspired by her as she boldly shares her journey and struggles with her relationship to her body, food and exercise in such an open way.  It is not unheard of to see Giulia sharing the rawest moments of her healing journey as she steps confidently into herself and helps others do the same.

In this episode she shares her journey which started at a very young age with crippling anxiety, disorder eating, suicidal thoughts (Trigger Warning). She talks us through where these behaviors came from and what she has done in her adult life to not only move past them but to reprogram her brain complete.

Giulia gives us an overview of Emotional Freedom Technique, a form of tapping that helps to turn off the stress response in the body, hone in on emotional struggles and reprogram and release the emotional charge they induce in our bodies. Hot tip: I've linked Giulia's YouTube page below where you can find FREE tapping resources.

Guilia also gives us a step by step process on where to begin if you are struggling with confidence, body image issues, self-worth and limiting beliefs and are ready to make a shift. She is so thorough, kind and helpful in the advice that  she offers.

We Chatted About:

• Her struggles with deep anxiety through most of her life and her journey to overcoming it
• Covid and the gift of slowing down, becoming more intentional and healing
• Her journey to overcoming life-long struggles with self-esteem, body image, and her relationship with food
• How an injury changed the trajectory of her career and her relationship with herself
• How she was able to use EFT (tapping) to free herself of the negative dialogue and emotional baggage  of limiting beliefs and reprogram her mind.
• Her advice on where to begin your journey to stepping into your confidence and reclaiming you light
  

Resources

Today's episode was a short and sweet one with yours truly. One of the visions I had when I began this podcast was to share with you the stories and inspiration that I experience and get the pleasure of witnessing through my own learnings, the coaching that I do and in the space that I hold for people. Today, I was inspired to share with you what I witness and experience when I see people in a frantic and panicked headspace. When they are trying so hard to think their way into answers and solutions. What I have seen is that at the core of it we all KNOW the answers. We know want we want and we know the next step to take. While our thinking mind might not know, our heart knows. 

In the episode I talk about what it is to come into our hearts and I give 3-4 of the tangible steps that I take regularly to do just that. Coming into your heart will ALWAYS begin with the breath. And we pause for a moment in the episode to take a few breaths together (note: don't do it if you are driving!). I also give you the journal exercise I use most regularly when it comes to accessing the wisdom that sits in my heart. I talk about how 2 dear friends of mine have called me out for always saying "I don't know" when in fact, I do know. Sometimes the answer we KNOW may not be the easiest or most comfortable answer but we still KNOW. 

Then, I tell you about 2 of my favorite morning practices that have helped me hear the wisdom of my heart. Hot tip: it isn't the actually practices that helps, it's that I'm doing something that is aligned with my own expression of JOY and feeling good!

Here's a recap of what I spoke about: 

• What I witness + experience when we are facing tough decisions, resistance or struggle
• We already know the answers, we just have to come into our heart
• How and why we build a relationship to our heart (self-trust)
• The quickest and easiest breathing practice to get you out of your head and into your heart
• The journalling practice that I use regularly that helps me hear the wisdom of my heart
• How tapping into simple moments of joy can help you get access to the answers you are seeking

Resources

In today's episode, I had the pleasure of reconnecting with Tess Sloane. We first met a few years ago when we sat next to each other on the floor of our meditation teacher training. Tess was just beginning her journey into entrepreneurship when we met and it's been inspiring to follow her journey ever since. I knew there was something special about Tess from the moment  we met and I'm excited to share our inspiring conversation.

About Tess

• Co-Founder of Eleven Eleven Talent + Founder of St._Reve. Tess is a firm believer in the philosophy of transformation, she has catalyzed purpose-led paths for people and worked for global brands renown for their transformative People Practices.
• Using her technical background and instinct as a true north star, her approach blends eastern and western philosophies, finding harmony between tried and true tactics and progressive, forward thinking innovation.With a passion for neuroanatomy and meditation she is able to harness the intersection of the brain + mind body connection to produce life changing results.
• Tess is a certified Meditation teacher, a mother, and a regular speaker at Universities, Women Events and HR Conferences. Tess is committed to the conversation of remaining deeply connected to your purpose and the continued development of your whole self.
  

We talk through the journey that Tess and her co-founder went on to build a business that enabled them to marry their technical skills with the more important things in life. Tess speaks about how her measure of success is being able to pick her children up from school at 3 pm everyday and she never faltered on that vision when building her career.

Tess gives us her take on motherhood and its role in the pursuit of her purpose. She also gives helpful tips on how she included her very charismatic kids in her journey and how she introduced them to meditation.

Tess found meditation during one of the most challenging points in her life and realized her old way of handling life's reckonings wasn't going to cut it anymore. So she sat, she meditation and worked through the pain. What surprised her most about meditation was that it opened her up to her next level of performance in her business, her relationships, and as a mother. She has since created ST. RÊVE, a way of expressing and sharing the power of meditation with others, mainly corporations, in hopes that the tools they learn will support them, help them get out of the problematic fight or flight and into visionary and creative problem solving.

A Summary of What We Spoke About

• Her journey to creating a purpose-led global recruitment collective
• The intermingling of spirituality and business
• The importance of learning to hold space for others in the corporate settingHer view on purpose and how motherhood fits into it
• How she built her life around what was most important to her and never faltered form that vision
• Reimagining what success looks like
• The role her mother, her business partner and Oprah play in inspiring her journey
• The biggest shifts in the workplace since the pandemic
• Her journey with meditation and what it's opened up for her
• How meditation transformed all aspects of her life
• How she got her kids to meditate

Resources

The radiant Jessica Charuk shares with us her journey to embodying a more heart-aligned version of her entrepreneurship journey in this week's episode. Jessica transitioned from being a talented brand photographer based in Toronto, Canada to a spiritually- and holistically-led Embodiment & Life Coach living her dream life in various tropical locations.  Jessica answered the call of her intuition to  use her experience and interest in all things wellness to empower soulful women to eliminate negative beliefs that have held them back, heal from past emotional wounds, and to feel more self love, joy and fulfillment in their life.

Jessica fills us in on how she was able to craft her life around the vision that she held and how she wanted to feel and now guides her students and clients to do the same. She talks us through how she helps them  design a life that is made up of their unique desires and teaches how to elevate their energy & mindset in order to be a magnet for their dreams.

In a story that hits near and dear to my heart, Jessica tells us of how her vision for her life's purpose revealed itself to her in a meditation practice, yet she sidelined it for 8 months as she grew her brand photography business. Later, in a deep breathwork (!) session, she asked for guidance on her life purpose and was told she already knew - this is the power of breathwork my friends!

We talked about moving through the resistance of changing your career and life and Jessica passionately spoke about how the belief and emotional work changed everything for her.

Jessica also shared that living her dream life came much easier than people might think. It starts with one major decision and a willingness to make other small decisions that align with the big goal or dream. Also, let the universe conspire with you to allow it to happen!

WE CHAT ABOUT: 

• Her transition from Brand Photographer to Embodiment and Life Coach
• How becoming an entrepreneur was the portal to her soul's growth
• How her passion for healing, health, holistic wellness morphed into her current career
• The meditation that showed her her life's purpose
• Her experience with breathwork and it's role in confirming what she is here to do
• Her process in shifting from the inside out
• How she works with the subconscious mind to shift her energy, beliefs and emotions
• How we can harness our triggers and a gateway to healing.
• The importance of having a clear vision of who you want to be

WHERE TO FIND JESSICA

In today's episode, our very first guest episode, we interview Erin Rogers- Intuitive Channel, Healing, and dear friend of mine. Erin is a leader of leaders. She'll meet you at the intersection of logic + spirit and help you remove the sh*t that keeps you from your most expansive self - and who doesn't want to be that?! Amirite?! Erin gives us the story of her evolution from successful and sought-after corporate recruiter to her exploration of tools like human design and astrocartography to fully embracing her gifts as an intuitive channel. 

She goes deep into how she went after what society deemed as successful for her and the day she achieved her biggest accomplishment being one of the saddest days of her life. It left her asking...what now? Before then she had had hope, something to strive for. This was the start of her spiritual journey. 

Erin, like many of us, looked to courses, certifications, healers, psychics and readers to show her the way to happiness and fulfilment. She speaks of her love of spiritual tools of all sorts but what she was really seeking was someone to show her the way. She talked of the day she met with a former General Physician turned psychic intuitive who was able to put words to the gifts she was tapping into and surfacing (one's she had repressed or felt made her 'different' most of her life). 

We also spoke about Erin's first real channelling session, which I was on the receiving end of one summer day while floating in lake here in British Columbia. What an experience and gift it was to witness. 

Erin did note that her journey, while it may seem to outsiders that she quit her job on a whim. In reality, it was a steady 10-11 year burn to get there. It took building the trust of her intuition in small ways, over long periods of time to trust it to take her bigger steps in her life. Which is one of the things I admire most about here - her willingness to courageously take a step, just one, without having to know what the destination looks like. This is the embodiment of trusting that you are and will be supported. 

Erin gives us her definition of purpose and reflects that somewhere between purpose and love is self acceptance. Her purpose is to love herself deeply and to express for that place - a lesson we can all learn from. 

A recap of what I talked about:

• Her progression from corporate recruiter to human design + astrocartography reader to intuitive channel
• Her pursuit of society's definition of success and the day she 'achieved' it being the most depressing day of her life
• the beginning of her spiritual journey
• The moment an MD turned intuitive put words to the gifts that posses
• Her first time channeling for me
• How she strengthened her ability to lean into and trust her intuition
• How she handles resistance from others for the choices she makes
• Erin's beautiful definition of purpose
• How learning to love herself deeply is her journey
• Her advice to all of us - simple yet SO profound!
  

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